Congressional Report Claims Administration Misled About Efforts on Oil Spill

No surprise here! Just more first hand testimony from the locals who know way more about the situation than our President would like.

Billy Nungesser, president of New Orleans’ Plaquemines Parish, sensed that a chart showing 140 oil skimmers at work -- a chart given to him by BP and the Coast Guard -- was “somewhat inaccurate.” So, Nungesser asked to fly over the spill to verify the number.
The flyover was cancelled three times before those officials admitted that just 31 of the 140 skimmers were actually deployed.

The incident is detailed in a report released Thursday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Republicans say the report provides evidence that the Obama administration misrepresented the assets devoted to the cleanup, misrepresented the timing of when government officials knew there was an oil spill and misrepresented the level of control the government had over the matter. It also claims the Obama administration seemed more interested in public relations than cleaning the mess and plugging the hole.

The report, which relies on interviews with several local officials in Louisiana, goes on to quote Nungesser, who had been on local and national television enough so that the White House became concerned. Two White House officials visited him on Father’s Day and said, “What do we have to do to keep you off TV?” His answer was, “Give me what I need.”

Other Parish officials said the administration did not provide as many assets as it claimed. One Parish official called these “phantom assets.”

The report also states that the people in the Gulf do not support President Obama’s six-month moratorium on offshore drilling, and also criticized Obama’s delay in allowing international assistance until 70 days into the spill.

“This report reveals a stark contrast between the narrative being told by the administration in Washington and the sobering realities and challenges that the people closest to this catastrophe are struggling to overcome,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“These testimonials from the people who are on the frontlines of this crisis have brought to light a bureaucratic quagmire that is exacerbating the response and clean-up effort - in a post-Katrina world, this is unimaginable and unacceptable,” Issa said.

“The evidence on the ground suggests that the White House has been more focused on the public relations of this crisis than with providing local officials the resources they need to deal with it,” he added.

“While administration officials have maintained that the Jones Act is not an obstacle and going so far as to claim that “nobody has come forward with a Jones Act Waiver [request], the Deputy Administrator of the Maritime Administration confirmed that one foreign flagged skimmer has made a Jones Act request, which was denied ostensibly because American vessels could perform the same functions,” the report said.

cnsnews.com...

Here is the full report in all of its SOBERING REALITY.
report

Obama, you certainly have the crisis that you so desperately WANTED and NEEDED!! Why are you holding this region HOSTAGE? I suppose Obama has the same to need to extort the Gulf in the same way that he has extorted our border states.



[edit on 2-7-2010 by jibeho]

[edit on 2-7-2010 by jibeho]

[edit on 2-7-2010 by jibeho]

reply to post by jibeho


Link 2 is broken.
If you could fix it that would be great!

If this kind of inaction isn't an impeachable offense, than i don't know WHAT is!!!!!

You can totally ruin the country nowadays and get away with it, but god forbid you engage in any promiscuous sexual activity. God help us.

reply to post by 6minutes212


Thanks! It should be working now. Its a good read!!

reply to post by jibeho


Thanks Jib, heading that way now. =)

i think we should know by now that obama was not a good choice of president

in times like these we need someone who can solve problems, hold people accountable ... heck we need someone who will do something at all!

not to turn this into something political, but obama has disapointed me as a president

The local communities have been telling us this for weeks.

People are being run off the beaches and harassed as they try to document what they see.

BP is using the US Coast Guard as their own personal Wackenhut rent-a-cop service.

No one can get (or has yet gotten) a straight answer out of either BP or their friends in the government.

These people have been busted 'burying' the oil on the beach under sand, rather than clean it up.

They've rendered vast amounts of oil unrecoverable (and unmeasurable) since it now consists of tremendous 'clouds' of oil droplets under the water...

It's like we have become a banana republic, kowtowing to the corporate master.



Teach your children well....... Because when they go to school years from now, the facts will not be part of the curriculum, it will simply be called 'an accident.'

[edit on 2-7-2010 by Maxmars]

Originally posted by indigothefish
i think we should know by now that obama was not a good choice of president

in times like these we need someone who can solve problems, hold people accountable ... heck we need someone who will do something at all!

not to turn this into something political, but obama has disapointed me as a president

You make an excellent point. This disaster in the Gulf goes way beyond politics. The ineptitude of this administration as a whole has been thrust into the forefront now. This disaster has opened the eyes and minds of many who honestly believed that Obama was the right person for the job. Any administration that has functioned in this manner should be held to the highest of standards and accountability.

The Gulf will never be the same. We still have not seen the full impact of this disaster.

It is the Sacrifice! Clearly the man, Obama, cannot speak truths and he is working for something other than American Values and Interests.

Is all of this just to jump in on the next big money maker? No, it is about the Fall of Babylon. If America was part of the continued storyline, the future, we would see actions that save lives. We would see real Action, but we don't.

The storyline is about the Middle East, it is there where the great battle will take place. First America is sacrificed, then Obama and his minions will sit on the 'defacto' throne in Israel because he is the False Prophet (a Prophet tells truth of the Future...Obama tells Lies of the Future. Obama is a Lie himself). As the False Prophet it is his duty to stand beside the man that will enslave the World. We all know the story. We all know where it is headed.

As much as I would like to "bring it home" and stay focused on this as a "local" crisis which means fixing this mess, I do not see our leadership doing this at all, and the people sit and wait.

Congress dangles themselves in front of us waiting to be Neutered because they are all in bed with him and they know it, some of them think they have a ticket to Paradise too, so they listen to the Truth but act also with False Expediency. Such Lofty Souls to put themselves above the innocent masses, to hear the truth yet act like they are doing everything they can for us.

Here, tell them we will work towards the Border Crisis instead. LOL What a joke. Time to go back to the real Story, the story of Humanity and the End! In my version Good will overcome Evil, but only at the end of the story and America is not part of that Story.

[edit on 7/2/2010 by Greensage]

Originally posted by Maxmars
It's like we have become a banana republic, kowtowing to the corporate master.

Yes. Transfer of wealth upward over the decades making for income disparities as seen in a banana republic economy, and the rise in corporate controlled politicians/govt.

The past administration, continuing a fondness for relying on business to regulate itself (what ever happened to Reagan's "trust but verify"?), rubber stamped an ineffective, deceitful corporate disaster plan. The gulf states, apparently relying on this plan, and under their own local version of corporate control, on their own were never prepared for a leak of this magnitude. The present administration was at least able to get BP to open a fund, which helped BP with their pr problem and contain their leak of $.

Mr. Issa is either naive or disingenuous, or both, if he concludes that "his side" would have done better. Until American's get fed up with corporate control of their govt, corporate control that allows for these scenarios, the score from this reality show will be Citizen: 0, Corporation: As Much As They Can Get Away With.

Let them eat bananas!